Archived: Last Updated January 23, 2004
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January 23, 2004

Labor Secretary Chao:
U.N. a Threat to U.S.

Special from NewsMax.com
By Wes Vernon

ARLINGTON, Va. – President Bush's labor secretary warned a gathering of
conservatives that Americans must pay more attention to the United Nations
and its related organizations, which she noted were chipping away at U.S.
sovereignty and threatening freedoms.

Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, making her charges late Thursday at the
Conservative Political Action Conference, explained that powerful tax-exempt
organizations were applying pressure through the U.N. to have the world body
make decisions for Americans' lives without any input from U.S. citizens.

These efforts are being made without the knowledge of most Americans, she
pointed out.

Chao cited a recent case where a labor union complained to the United
Nations that the U.S. government was violating international law and
international standards on the treatment of government employees.

The idea that tax-exempt U.N. and allied non-government organizations
would presume to dictate to Americans how they live, work and conduct
themselves on their internal business was a major theme late Thursday at
CPAC, not only from Secretary Chao but also from panelists who preceded her.

Foreign Parasites

Tom DeWeese, president of the American Policy Center, charged that the
goal of this unholy alliance was to "erase national boundaries,"
redistribute wealth on an international scale and steer decisions on
American affairs from representative government to the "global village,"
with all of us as "global citizens."

He and another panelist, Jeff Gayner of Americans for Sovereignty, called
for the U.S. to get out of the U.N. and to force the U.N. to get out of the
U.S.

Secretary Chao cited not only labor organizations but also groups in
other areas of concern, such as Environmental Policy Institute and
self-described human rights groups that have used their tax-exempt status to
try to bring the U.S. into line with their worldview, without a single
American vote being cast or even an awareness on the part of most U.S
citizens.

The long list of accredited left-of-center NGOs, she said, have become
“key players in laying the groundwork for international law” and, she fears,
“one day, the U.S. will be pressured to adopt” the globalist agenda without
a single vote being cast.

Social Engineering

The internationalist-minded NGOs, the secretary observed, are encouraging
the U.N. and its offshoot agencies to pressure the United States into
policies mandating “gender neutrality” and “reallocating defense
expenditures for other” left-favored causes.

“Conservatives who ignore the U.N. do so at their peril,” Chao declared.

DeWeese said the international tentacles of the NGOs reached down to
local governments around the country. He said they were working with city
and county governments to use familiar programs to forge ahead with such
ideas as “sustainable development,” and “smart growth,” euphemisms, he said,
for pressuring us out of the wide-open suburbs and into crowded cities.
These policies also make housing more expensive, though liberal politicians
constantly bemoan the lack of “affordable housing,” a shortage they have
abetted.

“If you love liberty,” the American Policy Center president told CPAC,
“sustainable development is your enemy.”

The job-killing, China-boosting Kyoto “global warming” treaty and the
International Criminal Court, both rejected by President Bush, are just the
tip of the iceberg, DeWeese warned.

“Few Americans are aware of what is going on,” he noted.

It goes to the philosophy of these particular NGOs that all living
creatures are the same, perhaps crowing humans together in cities, with the
animals looking in.

Gayner said Americans would have to use the same mantra with
international planners and their NGOs that former first lady Nancy Reagan
used with the drug culture: “Just say no.”

“The World Court and the International Criminal Court are building blocks
to the control of the American people,” he said.

He praised President Bush for his State of the Union statement that the
U.S. did not need a permission slip from foreigners to defend its own
interests. Moreover, he cited polls showing near unanimity among the
American people in agreement with that. Yet the pressure for world
governance continues unabated.

Gayner urged support for a proposal by Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, to end
U.S. membership in the United Nations.

The Enemy on U.S. Soil

Panelist Tom Kilgannon of Oliver North’s Freedom Alliance noted that U.N.
Secretary General Kofi Anan lives “like a king” at the U.N., where “Castro
is a hero and George W. Bush is reviled or barely tolerated.”

“Kofi Anan is no friend of the American people, and the U.N. is no ally
of the Untied States,” he declared.

Secretary Chao said she was encouraged that such pro-American groups as
the Heritage Foundation and the American Conservative Union had persisted in
their efforts, against heavy resistance, to obtain accreditation as
observers of the U.N. General Assembly.